"Yeah, I set up Louslik's gate," Telas admits, proudly. "I kind of taught myself, really. I was a really scrawny kid, so I fooled around with pulleys so that I could still move heavy things around the stables. I guess I also dabble in anything else that uses pulleys and such.
"I don't know the gate you're talking about, personally, but it would be a pretty simply set-up to use weights to rig one to shut and stay shut. With the proper rigging, it wouldn't even take that much weight." He pauses for a moment, face worked in thought. "It's weird, though. This is the second time this week that someone asked me this same question. Sheriff Staelish and I had a chat about it when she still had the job. Is there some sort of renovation project going on out there?"
Sister Ismene can't even hide her look of disgust as they pass through the hospice. The sight of so many old invalids offends her. They're so... pathetic! Just lying there, waiting for death. Is this place really even worth saving? The Sisters had taught Ismene that the weak received their just desserts. It was unnatural for anything incapable of defending itself to go on living the way these old soldiers did. The young had potential, they could be formed and strengthened. But the old were used up. Whatever strength these veterans had, it had long since faded.
Once in the office, Ismene finds that she just wants to get her business over with as quickly as possible. "I just came from the Notary," she says by way of explanation. She didn't have time for pointless lies, so it was easier to let Gerya draw her own conclusions. "But the how isn't important. What's important is that you owe the Crown a lot of money very soon. And that's a problem for you, 'cause you can't cough up what you ain't got, right? I'm here to offer you a deal. We'll cover your taxes in full, and you can pay off the debt, plus nominal interest, over time in installments. What do you say?"
"Yeah, I set up Louslik's gate," Telas admits, proudly. "I kind of taught myself, really. I was a really scrawny kid, so I fooled around with pulleys so that I could still move heavy things around the stables. I guess I also dabble in anything else that uses pulleys and such.
"I don't know the gate you're talking about, personally, but it would be a pretty simply set-up to use weights to rig one to shut and stay shut. With the proper rigging, it wouldn't even take that much weight." He pauses for a moment, face worked in thought. "It's weird, though. This is the second time this week that someone asked me this same question. Sheriff Staelish and I had a chat about it when she still had the job. Is there some sort of renovation project going on out there?"
Unless Telas was a brilliant and bold liar--willing to give up Sheriff Staelish to save himself--it seemed likely he was telling the truth and the Sheriff had picked his brain for advice. "There's been some work being done, in a manner of speaking. Might take a lot more now to really get the place in shape, though." Muziel recalls that they ended up busting their way out of the gate when he couldn't undo the trap.
"Speaking of which, do you know a good place in town to buy that kind of rigging?" Muziel continues to follow the trail in a paranoid quest to find accomplices to the Sheriff's activities.
Telas shrugs. "The component parts are pretty easy to come by. Common stuff. You can get plenty of rope right here, in fact. I haven't needed my makeshift pulley systems around here much in years, so I could sell you some of the pulleys as well, if you need. I'm sure you can get it all at Gield's General Store. I don't know about pulleys, necessarily, but there's almost certainly rope at the Armory of the Jail or the flower shop. You can probably even make the pulleys yourself, if you need, like I did. They're basically just wheels stuck together."
Rohalendi takes a deep breath, and licks her lips. "It certainly sounds tempting. But, and I mean no offense by this, it makes me wonder what the 'catch' is. What size and frequency of payments? How much interest? These are important to know before agreeing to anything. One doesn't live in Cheliax all their life without becoming rather wary of spontaneous deals."
Muziel shrugs, deciding there wasn't much more to pursue. "Great, you've been very helpful. Next time we have trouble with the gates and such, we'll be sure to send some business your way!"
With that, he bids farewell and goes on his way. "I'll probably get some more magic lessons from Teagan, meet up again tonight for the armory tour?"
-Posted with Wayfinder
Sure Penelope says off hand. Running her hands through her long black hair she gets a bit of dried manticore blood and bits of other things she's not really sure what is... I'm off to the baths I think. One night all dressed up and I can't stomach smelling like a soldier anymore. she gives a small smile then heads off.
She may have a bleeding heart, but she's no dummy, Ismene thinks to herself. Can't make the terms too steep, or she'll just reject the deal, and I won't make squat. First rule of negotiation, never be the first one to name a price.
"It's a good thing you're dealing with Wrath then, not Greed. Obviously you're struggling to pay the taxes at present," she says, taking an uninvited seat. "I'm not gonna pretend like I'm doing this outta the goodness of my own black heart, but I'm not here to gouge you, either. We're in the business of upholding the law, and your business is good for our business, so how about you tell me what you think is a workable plan?"
Ismene was seeing the logic of forcing the conflict with the Glorious Reclamation as quickly as possible. But these geezers wouldn't be part of that fight regardless, and it's worth making sure that there's something left to govern once everything was said and done. And if she could do both and line her own pockets at the same time, well, Asmodeus would certainly smile on that.
Rohalendi thinks about it quite intensely for a while, before finally speaking up. "As you can imagine, I don't really make any money directly from this. I get a small stipend from the Archbaron to cover some of the expenses directly tied to the hospice care needs, and supplement that as I can with other medical visits around town. So I don't really have a lot of wiggle room in my budget." She takes a deep breath, and seems to be too embarrassed to meet Ismene's eyes directly.
"But I think I might be able to cut back in some areas, enough to spare an extra seven gold a month. Over four years that works out to twelve percent, or an extra thirty-six above the three hundred I already owe?" She forces herself to make eye contact, trying to see how the suggestion is received.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Sister Ismene bursts out laughing at Gerya's offer. It was a pretty good joke, she had to admit. After fifteen seconds or so, she finally manages to calm down. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she realizes that it wasn't a joke.
"You're serious? Wow!" The time frame was way too long and the payout much too small to make that worthwhile; Ismene was hoping to be on her way out of Longacre long before then. But before she rejects the offer outright, it occurs to her that maybe the real value here wasn't the coin to be had.
"Sorry, you caught me off guard. I realize things are tough right now. Help me help you. There are things happening in Cheliax that are bigger than you or me. The situation is, the Glorious Reclamation's angling for a fight, and between you and me, the Archbaron's looking to give it to 'em. But they're not swooping in with an army from the outside. Gerya, I know that you know they're trying to rally Longacre to their cause. If the GR and the Archbaron get what they want, a lot of people are going to get hurt. We're talking about the people of Longacre, friends and neighbors." Ismene sighs heavily. They weren't her friends or neighbors, but still.
"Here's my counter offer. I know you've got a lot of pull in town. The people, they'll listen to you. Some of them are too far gone, but there are a lot of good, law-abiding people in Longacre that don't have to get caught up in this. Talk some sense into them, help us all avoid disaster. I want to know who the rabble-rousers are, but the others don't concern me. You do that for me, your little tax problem goes away. No interest, no payment plan. Whaddya say?"
Perhaps Gerya Rohalendi is extremely desperate, or perhaps Sister Ismene is pushing all the right buttons with her speech, but after a few moments of thought the doctor blows out a deep breath of relief. Her posture changes, like an enormous weight has been taken off her neck, chest and shoulders.
"Thank you so much," she says, voice sounding like it's a moment away from happy tears. "You've got a deal. I'll do what I can to convince people on your behalf. I honestly don't know much about who in town has been rabble-rousing the most, but I was approached a little bit earlier this morning by Curtwyn, one of the former Sheriff's deputies you know. He said there was going to be an raid on the armory museum this evening, and wanted to store the weapons here until the time was right. Can you believe that? Here, in this place of healing?" She sighs and blows out another deep breath.
"Somehow he also knew about my situation, and offered to make it go away once the Glorious Reclamation was in control. But, well, based on what I've seen the last few days, what with the Allomars and all, I'm not sure that's going to happen."
With its narrow windows and sturdy timbers, this squat, graceless building looks like it was constructed to withstand a siege. Over the short stairway climbing to its double doors hangs a sign that reads, “Armory.” The large front doors to the building are closed, and a sturdy chain is looped through the door handles and tied together with a hefty padlock.
Muziel is excited about the opportunity to both trap some rebels and take control of the weapons. He feels a little disappointed that the front gate is still locked.
.
Muziel whispers to the others. "Looks like they haven't gone through the front, but they could already be in through the side door."
Muziel looks for signs of tracks or other clues as to the presence of the rebels.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ismene scoffs along with Gerya at the appropriate moment, as if to say "Some nerve!" "Thanks for the information. We've already caught wind of their plans for the armory. If they do try to keep the weapons here, let them, and I'll take them off your hands. An unarmed rebellion is less likely to get themselves killed," she reasons. "I'll leave you to it. You've got a man to see about some taxes," she says, pulling out a sack of gold. Dropping it on the desk, she takes her leave, eager to get out of the place.
Three hundred gold pieces was a high price to pay for intelligence that was old news. But it wasn't just about what Gerya could tell them. Now they had her gratitude and good public relations. Even better, they had leverage. Madame Cembers and her staff make for passable spies, and Ingoe Zoags was even better, but Gerya Rohalendi was a veritable mouthpiece without Allomar around. It was a devil's deal Gerya had made, and she didn't even know it.
-Posted with Wayfinder
As it nears sundown, Sister Ismene approaches the Armory with Cimri in tow. "Hope we're not too late for the fun," she greets Muziel. "I've got news. The leader of this little raid is Curtwyn, one of Rhona's deputies."
Maybe we should just hunt down and kill each and every deputies just to be sure. she would have included the sheriff, but is unsure how Cimri will react to that. Penelope will start moving as quietly as she can to the side entrance, keeping her ears and eyes perked.
Creeping around to the side entrance, you discover it to be closed as well. However, tied up close by, is a pair of saddled horses standing together. One of them snorts softly upon noticing your approach.
"I guess there's already someone inside," Cimri whispers.
The door on this side is a single door, rather than the large double-doors at the front. A short flight of stone steps leads up to a short stone landing at the door's height. The horses are tied off to the exposed corner of the landing. The other corner is nestled in a corner of the building.
Muziel rubs his hands excitedly. "No escape for these fools!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Are we taking prisoners, or can Pestilence and I just do what we do best?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Muziel shrugs, "I mean, one or two usually survive by accident."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Alright," Cimri suggests quietly. "If they closed the door, they might have done something worse to them. Better let me check it out first."
She climbs the steps onto the porch and makes a cursory examination of the door, quickly deciding that there's no way it's trapped. She tries the handle to find it locked. "Just a few seconds," she mutters as she brings out the picks and hastily works the lock.
The lock on the side door isn't particularly difficult, and after just a few seconds of scratching sounds and holding her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth, there's a clicking sound and the door swings open with a creak, and then the tinkling of a bell.
Hundreds of weapons and pieces of armor line the walls of this tiled hall, each display attended by a descriptive note or plaque. At the north end of the hall hangs a collection of tattered naval signal flags, the largest stitched with a grinning ram’s skull. Beneath them, a red ballista crouches atop a wooden platform, the siege weapon aimed down the length of the hall.
In the center, near the ballista, are two older folks immediately recognizable as Bo and Dent Gramel. They each have a handful of weapons under their arms that they're in the process of unloading into a tarp at the base of the largest weapon. They pause and look up when the bell rings.
"Oh s##$," both Bo and Cimri say in unison.
Sister Ismene dashes in and cuts off their route down the hall. "The jig's up, old-timers," she says, faking a lazy strike at Dent meant more to alarm than to wound.
"What? I didn't expect to see a bunch of old fogeys." A kinder man might have held back on seeing this, but Muziel figures to just fry them and figure things out later. He fires at Dent since he's closer.
;
Sister Ismene's fist goes wide of the older man, but Muziel's jolt of electricity just manages to catch him. He shudders as the lightning arcs around him. The effect leaves him standing, though smoldering a little and what little hair he has left standing straight up.
"Dent!" shouts Bo, horrified. She turns to make for the elevated platform with the ballista. Sister Ismene giver her a parting kick as she goes, but it's not enough to stop her from reaching the loaded siege weapon. She turns it on its mount, and fires the massive bolt at the Gnome which jolted her husband.
There's a loud thwomp! as the tension on the siege weapon releases, followed by a clattering as the enormous ammunition skitters across the floor to the right of Muziel before coming to rest near the doorway.
Kolaiah will charge down the hall and attack the square with PA going.
P/S 20/x4
As the massive bolt completely misses their gnome, Penelope barks a laugh. Bo! You had A SIEGE WEAPON and MISSED! she can barely contain her mirth, as she moves forward to keep the stupid woman from reloading.
Penelope moves up to menace Bo, taunting as she goes. Kolaiah rushes up and a brutal swing from Pestilence finishes what Muziel's electricity started. Mere seconds since the door was opened, the old soldier is bleeding on the floor before he even managed to fully comprehend what was happening.
Cimri slinks her way in, drawing her masterwork dagger as she goes. She comes up behind Kolaiah and throws a dagger over his shoulder at Bo.
Old as he might be, Denton still has the stubbornness of a soldier, and while he might be unconscious he doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger of bleeding out.
"Missed me!" cries the gnome as the ballista thankfully skitters on the ground beside him. "Guess you should've tried for a bigger target!" Muziel hops over Dent's unconscious body and and returns fire at Bo.
;
The others seem to have the situation well in hand, so Sister Ismene bends down over the fallen Dent to bind him. Besides, if she didn't, Kolaiah might decide that Pestilence was thirsty or something. And something about the whole thing seemed off. She had been expecting the deputies and a crew of other rabble-rousers, not two old gatekeepers. It would be better if they kept at least one alive for questioning.
Sister Ismene stops to tie up Denton while Muziel sends a punishing surge at Bo. The lightning causes her to convulse for a few seconds before collapsing to the floor at the base of the siege weapon.
As things go quiet, it becomes plain that the two retirees were gathering a lot of weapons into their piles. Some of them are damaged to the point of being nearly unusable, but even so there's enough to arm every man, woman and child in Longacre. And there's still plenty more in the massive collection of arms and armor that they haven't even gotten to yet.
"I never realized that this place had so much stuff in it," Cimri remarks as she retrieves her dagger from the unconscious Bo. She wipes the blood off on the unconscious woman's clothes as she looks at the collection of signalling flags and a large wooden nameplate. "I guess a lot of this stuff came from some ship named Vendetta. Cool name."
"The Vendetta is it? Perhaps we should check them out next. But before we go anywhere, let us look through the dross, and see if there is anything of true value in this pile."
"I don't think there's anything left to check out," says Cimri, squinting at the smaller, longer descriptive text on the plaque below the large wooden piece bearing the name 'Vendetta' in bold letters. "According to this, she was decommissioned nearly thirty years ago, following a distinguished lifetime of coastal patrol under Commander Rickart Fex. Whatever isn't on display here was either re-purposed elsewhere in the navy or scuttled along with the hull."
Spending some time searching through the arms and armor in the museum, it becomes clear that while the majority of the stuff is either damaged or just plain old. Some items do stand out as being of superior quality however, including an obviously masterwork spiked breastplate, a mithral heavy shield, a masterwork greatsword, a repeating light crossbow, and an as-yet-untouched glass case containing a leather scabbard and a single, black arrow.
"Junk for the masses. Sell the lot I say, how is it going at waking up that bastard so we can find out who their associates are?"
Once Dent is all bound up, Muziel takes out his Smelling Salts once more and gives the old man a whiff!
"Hello there. Isn't it kind of embarrassing how you just stood there as your wife tried to protect you? Too bad she's not looking so good, I wonder if we should give her some first aid?" Muziel lets the implications of his words sink in.
Oh this is pretty Penelope gushes at the spikes on the breastplate. Can you image hugging someone in this! seeing Muziel get to business makes her focus though. I'll keep an eye out for others. There were only 2 horse so this is probably all of them, but you can never be too sure she'll head over to the open door, pull it mostly closed and peer out into the dark.
The weapons don't hold much interest for Sister Ismene. The place reminds her of war, and war is something she'd rather not think about.
Since Greed is taking point on the interrogation, Ismene sees to Bo, binding her as well and checking her vitals. If the woman is in danger of bleeding out, Ismene will surreptitiously bind her wounds as best she can.
Penelope keeps watch at the door, but doesn't see anyone or anything approaching so far. Sister Ismene binds up Bo and manages to stops the lingering convulsions which threatened to finish her off.
Dent coughs at the odor of the salts. He instinctively tries to get up, but the bindings don't let that happen. He looks with slightly unfocused eyes at the Gnome above him. "Wha-what happened?" he asks, confused.
"Wow, you reaaaaaly didn't see it coming, did you?" Muziel chuckles, amused by the situation. "We caught you and Bo here gathering a LOT of weapons. Enough to arm the whole town! That's treason, and could get you a death sentence. But I know you old folks aren't the real troublemakers. So why don't you tell us who put you up to this and where we can find them, so we can consider a lighter sentence?"
Muziel speaks well enough, though his small stature and mocking attitude is not the most diplomatic. .
Penelope will call from the doorway in a matter of fact voice "Tell us who you boss is or me and Koliah spend some quality time with your wife there... Eating."
Denton seems non-plussed by Muziel, but Penelope's blunt threat clearly makes him afraid for the life of his wife. "That's the whole reason we agreed to this," he says, his voice trembling with a combination of age, fear, and anger. "You're mad dogs, you lot. Our boss is the idea that maybe someday those we care about won't have to live in constant fear or people like you. That and the true and proper law enforcement of this town, who can tell right from wrong."
Penelope starts laughing half way through his speech An Idea!?! Your boss is an idea?!? Oh, that's lovely. coming over, grabbing him and pulling him close enough to get a good look at her pointy teeth. But it ain't going to help your wife much, is it? dropping the little man, she'll slowly saunter over to Bo, seeing if he'll break or she'll eat.
Not wanting to see Penelope have to make good on her threat, and Ismene knew the dhampir happily would, she chimes in. "Cut the crap, Dent. You expect us to believe you came up with this little scheme on your own? Where did you think you were gonna store all these weapons?" The Devil Nuns had beaten plenty of lessons into Sister Ismene (literally), and not all of them were martial. Never ask a question you don't already know the answer to. Not just pretty words.
Muziel claps his hands in delight at the unfolding scene. "I love it when you ladies take charge!" He seems content to see whether Dent will spill the beans or whether Penelope would get a meal.
Denton watches, trying to decide if Penelope is bluffing or not for a moment. "Stop, Stop!" he says, finally, just as she's getting close. "Don't hurt Bo. It was Jask, alright? Jask Coalimber. Sheriff's deputy, or rather former deputy. The plan was to gather as much as we could, then bring it to the hospice. The idea was that nobody would think twice about the two of us coming to the armory, and that nobody would ever think to look for the missing weapons at Rohalendi's. Supposedly there was some leverage that would make sure she stayed on our side. I have no idea what that is, or was. That's all we know. Please don't hurt Bo."
Sister Ismene stares Dent down, acting like she's trying to make up her mind. After a tense moment, she shifts her gaze to Penelope. "He's telling the truth," she says without further explanation. Dent didn't tell them anything she didn't already know, but he didn't need to know that. And his corroboration of Gerya's story meant that she could be trusted. The best thing now would be to end things before the old timers somehow end up dead.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Across the dim room, Penelope's dark eyes catch Ismene's steadily for several moments. Penelope is hungry. So very hungry. Nothing in this horrid town had satisfied her for days. She could smell the woman near her feet. A meal she knew would delight. But Ismene's voice had a hint of command. Telling her no with its tone... Getting In Her Way. Heat trickled up her little by little as the stare progressed. A low growl barely kept from her lips.
Bo whimpered, breaking Penelope's gaze downward. Still unconscious. Her eyes darted to the wound Cimri's dagger had caused. Still wet with the old woman's blood. Blood so very warm. Lovely. Rich.
And more... Penelope's head cocks to the side, suddenly noticing the flesh around the blood. Ragged but... succulent.
She swallowed, suddenly very unsure. About everything.
"Fine." she mumbled backing down. Without looking at anyone, she heads back to the door to keep watch.
"That's a good boy," says Muziel as Dent gives in to their threats. "It looks like you gave it up just in time." Certainly Lust was more than ready to feed, and they were lucky she hadn't done so. "Now where's Jask? When and where were you planning on meeting him next?"
"I don't know where he is," Dent pleads. "He showed up at our house to talk about it. We don't have any plan to meet up with him again in place. The idea was to not know any more than we had to in order to get the job done. You know," he winces, "in case exactly this sort of thing happened." He gives another worried look toward the door where Penelope had moved to keep watch.
"But if it helps our situation any, I have heard a rumor where the headquarters is."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Muziel tries to suppress a grin. "Is that right? Where's this headquarters?" He wouldn't have been surprised if the man said the Court of Spears. But if Dent said the Old Fort, Muziel was going to have to put some dents into Dent.